Copending and commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/301,379 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,077 and Ser. No. 07/473,507 (Behrens) now U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,954 describe 3-phenyl-5,6-dihydrobenz[c]acridine-7-carboxylic acids and their derivatives as tumor inhibiting agents.
It has now been found that the compounds described in U.S. Ser. No. 07/301,379 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,077 and 07/473,507 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,954 are useful as immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory agents for the treatment and/or prevention of organ transplantation rejection, graft versus host disease, autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS), myasthenia gravis (MG) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), psoriasis and other chronic inflammatory diseases.
The 3-phenyl-5,6-dihydrobenz[c]acridine-7-carboxylic acid compounds of this invention can be used alone or in combination with other known immunosuppressive agents, such as cyclosporin A (CSA), azathioprine (AZA) corticosteroids, OKT3, FK506, mycophenolic acid or the morpholinethylester thereof, 15-deoxyspergualin, rapamycin, mizoribine, misoprostol; or anti-interleukin-2 receptor antibodies, for the treatment and/or prevention of immunomodulatory disorders. When used in combination with other known agents, a lower dose of each agent can be used, with an associated lower incidence of side effects.